different between chirrup vs squeak

English

Etymology

Variant of chirp.

Verb

chirrup (third-person singular simple present chirrups, present participle chirruping, simple past and past participle chirruped)

1. (intransitive) To make a series of chirps, clicks or clucks.
   • 1841 James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer: Or, the First War-path, Chapter 17,^[1]

     When other folks' squirrels are at home and asleep, yourn keep in motion among the trees and chirrup and sing, in a way that even a Delaware gal can understand their music!

2. (transitive) To express by chirping.

   The crickets chirruped their song.

3. (transitive) To quicken or animate by chirping.

   to chirrup a horse

Translations

Noun

chirrup (plural chirrups)

1. A series of chirps, clicks or clucks.
   • 1845 Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the First,^[2]

     And here, if you like, the Cricket DID chime in! with a Chirrup, Chirrup, Chirrup of such magnitude, by way of chorus […]

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 9,

     […] the music flashed by in delirious chirrups and stampings.

2. (figuratively, derogatory) A brief, high-pitched, insignificant statement.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwi?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

squeak (plural squeaks)

1. A short, high-pitched sound, as of two objects rubbing together, or the calls of small animals.
2. (games) A card game similar to group solitaire.
3. (slang) A narrow squeak.
   • 1905, E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night

     "I had the very devil of a squeak for it," he went on. "I did the hurdles over two or three garden-walls, but so did the flyer who was on my tracks, and he drove me back into the straight and down to High Street like any lamplighter. […]

Translations

Verb

squeak (third-person singular simple present squeaks, present participle squeaking, simple past and past participle squeaked)

1. (intransitive) To emit a short, high-pitched sound.
2. (intransitive, slang) To inform, to squeal.

   • If he be obstinate, put a civil question to him upon the rack, and he squeaks, I warrant him.

3. (transitive) To speak or sound in a high-pitched manner.
4. (intransitive, games) To empty the pile of 13 cards a player deals to oneself in the card game of the same name.
5. (intransitive, informal) To win or progress by a narrow margin.
   • 1999, Surfer (volume 40, issues 7-12)

     […] allowing Parkinson to squeak into the final by a half-point margin.

Synonyms

• (to inform): drop a dime, grass up, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

• bubble and squeak
• squeakish
• squeaky
• squeak by
• squeak through

Translations

Anagrams

• quakes